Miller

On the way home the night of July 4th we were driving up Riverside Drive in Mount Airy. Right off the side of the road, we saw an animal. I thought it looked like a baby deer. We went back and sure enough, I was right.

He was the tiniest thing. It looked like he must have just come out of a driveway to a recycling center. Tony got out of the car and he came right to him. He picked him up and tried to take him back down that road. He followed Tony right back out. He made a noise that sounded very similar to a cow mewing. It was pitiful.

Knowing he would go right back out in the road, we decided to take him home for the night. We got some baby formula to feed him and had a large dog kennel to keep him safe. Cassidi decided his name should be Miller. She got up every three hours to feed him.

The next morning we decided it was best to take him back to look for his Momma. We left him there all day. On my way home from work, I stopped to see if he was still there. Unfortunately, he was. As soon as I got close while calling his name and he saw me, he came bounding out.

Figuring our human scent had detered his Momma, we had no choice but to take him back home. We figured that the fireworks had scared his Momma off to begin with. But who really knows what happened. All we knew is that we couldn't just abandon him.

We got goats milk for him and tried to do all the things web sites instructed us to do. He seemed to do okay, but then I noticed some places on his legs. The further we looked, it appeared he had numerous open wounds. He slowly became less interested in eating and became weaker and weaker. It was heart breaking.

Today we finally called the vet see if they could help. They said they would take him and put him in the hands of a wildlife rehabilitator. They were going to treat his wounds and give him some fluids.  He can't be more than a few days old. We can only hope they'll nurse him back to health. We hope we did the right things to help him. The last hope is that he can one day return to the wild and live a long life.